Julina Lambson Smith

Julina Lambson Smith (June 18, 1849 – January 10, 1936) was a leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). From 1910 to 1921 she was a member of the General Presidency of the Relief Society. The second wife of Joseph F. Smith and the mother of Joseph Fielding Smith, she is the only woman in the history of the LDS Church to have been the wife of a President of the Church and the mother of another church president. She worked as a midwife in the Mormon community and delivered over 1,000 babies.

Biography Julina Lambson was born to Alfred Boaz Lambson and Melissa Jane Bigler in Salt Lake City. Her parents were Mormon pioneers who arrived in Utah in 1847. Her family's home was the first house in Salt Lake City to be plastered. As a young girl Julina would often stay with her aunt Bathsheba W. Smith and it was in her home that Julina was first introduced to the idea of plural marriage. Ten years after arriving in Salt Lake Julina's family was forced to Nephi, Utah because of the Utah War. Her family and many other saints passed through great trials after being displaced from their homes.

Marriage and family

In 1866, Julina married Joseph F. Smith in the Endowment House. It was Joseph F. Smith's second marriage; Julina was his first plural wife. Joseph and Levira were divorced in 1867. On August 14 of that same year Julina had her first child, Mercy Josephine. The couple also adopted two children. In 1901 Joseph F. Smith was called to be the next President of the LDS church and held that position until his death in 1918. Many years later, after suffering a bad fall, Julina died on January 10, 1936, aged 86.

Church callings

In 1870, when the first Young Women's Retrenchment Society was first organized in Salt Lake City on a ward level, Smith was selected as one of its first ward presidents. At that time she also worked at the Endowment House and in 1892, she became a member of the general board of the Relief Society. When Emmeline B. Wells became the president of the Relief Society in 1910, she selected Smith as her second counselor. Along with first counselor Clarissa S. Williams, the presidency served until Wells died in 1921.

Publications